Old Route 66 Rail Siding Near Flagstaff

The service station from 1945 and the three bears café from 1948 at 12913 e old route 66 no longer exist.

Old route 66 rail siding near flagstaff.

Railroad traffic continued to be important however and in 1926 the atchison topeka and santa fe railway built a new more elaborate railroad depot across from the old one. There is much left of old route 66 in flagstaff in fact the city takes pride in its route 66 heritage. Today it includes the glenrio historic district listed on the national register of historic places in 2007. About the trail follows the south side of historic route 66 from downtown flagstaff to the east side of town.

The fireside inn was located at 11961 e old route 66 was built in 1938. Route 66 the original boundary was roughly bounded by santa fe rr tracks agassiz and beaver sts birch and aspen avenues. It had tourist cabins filling station and lunch counter. The district was expanded twice to add nine buildings along phoenix avenue from beaver street to san francisco avenue.

Route 66 was anointed on november 11 1926 but it would take until 1938 before the entire route was paved with concrete. In the mid 1990 s the city removed a string of billboards from the strip of land between route 66 and the bnsf railroad tracks and replaced it with landscaping and an urban trail. The national old trails road an early predecessor of route 66 followed railroad alignments through flagstaff and other areas of northern arizona in the 1910s. The victim was identified as allen shaffer who was hit just before 3 p m close to the amtrak station located on historic route 66 near beaver street flagstaff police said.

There are ghost towns and flourishing businesses along the route that speak to a simpler time. There are several of the historic hotels still lining route 66 in flagstaff and the world famous museum club that turned from a route 66 roadhouse and taxidermy shop into a country western nightclub where you can go to line dance and hear live music. The garage at 12102 e old route 66 from the 1950s is also gone. The rock island railroad depot closed in 1955 and the opening of interstate 40 in 1975 further accelerated the demise of glenrio.

The two hour tour is a unique way to explore route 66 and flagstaff on two wheels. The district emcompasses the route 66 roadbed and 17 abandoned structures. It quickly became one of the nation s principal east west routes not. Flagstaff is still going strong and is a popular year round destination point.